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Author Topic: Who knows what about Heat Pumps!?  (Read 2271 times)

DaveWertz

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Who knows what about Heat Pumps!?
« on: February 26, 2017, 10:36:11 PM »

Well the time has come and I finally got moved into a newer home. Built in '93 and never lived in until now. Rich guy used it as hunting getaway. Anyhow, The house is well insulated. The only source of heat is a heat pump. I know absolutely nothing about these things. I will say I won't miss tending a fire when its below freezing! Now from what Im seeing is that there is a water heater tied into the heat pump system, which runs water to a heat exchanger thus getting my heat. My question, is this the secondary source of the heat and the pump itself is the primary or vise versa? During my inspection the inspector recommended that I get rid of the water heater and replace that with a back up electric heat strip? Not sure what that is or if it would be more beneficial to do this... Any thoughts? Attached is a pick. The brown water heater is the one tied to the heat pump.
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E Yoder

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Re: Who knows what about Heat Pumps!?
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2017, 02:55:01 AM »

My guess would be the heat pump is primary, water heater with coil is secondary because the electric strip is normally secondary.
Boy, I'd hate to only have a heat pump for heat tho. I'm spoiled with my G1. :)
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DaveWertz

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Re: Who knows what about Heat Pumps!?
« Reply #2 on: February 27, 2017, 03:17:38 AM »

Yeah I will miss my hardy for sure. The cost of wood and time plus equipment I wont miss. I went more on the lazy side with this one LOL. Yeah my electric may go up a bit but I travel allot and having someone always coming and maintain my OWB was a true pain. I have myself so programmed to load the stove I still go threw the routine of walking outside only to turn around because I remember I don't have to load the stove no more. Not to say I won't have another here in the near future. Now that I have a more efficient home it may be worth one by next yr. I do plan on using a pellet stove in the basement. Pellets are cheap and everywhere in my area. So it only makes sense.
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shepherd boy

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Re: Who knows what about Heat Pumps!?
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2017, 05:40:44 AM »

Get a cold winter and you will hate your heat pump and your electric bill after having an outdoor furnace. Looks like your water heater to the heat pump is run off electric. If you had a cheap source of fuel, like natural gas, and replaced it with a heater run on that source it would make sense, but electric -go with strip. Good chance you could plug in an outdoor furnace,even a pellet unit into the coil you already have and get some comfort.
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MScott

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Re: Who knows what about Heat Pumps!?
« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2017, 09:47:58 AM »

Is your heat pump ground source or air sourced? In my experience, air sourced heat pumps become very inefficient at low temperatures although they work well in moderate weather and, of course, are great as a central air conditioning system in the summer.
My previous house had a ground source heat pump (Water Furnace) which worked well down to -40 and was quite efficient for an electrical heating system.
One thing you will find with a heat pump is that the heating air never feels as warm as the heat from your outdoor furnace even though the temperature of the house is similar. Typically, the heating air is only in the 80's when the thermostat is set for 70-72 so it is considerably cooler than body temperature and feels "cool" on the skin. The air or radiant heat from an outdoor furnace (or wood stove) feels much warmer.
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shepherd boy

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Re: Who knows what about Heat Pumps!?
« Reply #5 on: February 27, 2017, 01:48:16 PM »

If you notice , he's got freon lines run to the air handler which would mean air sourced. This setup is fairly common but usually hooked to a fossil fuel source that is cheaper than electric. Pulling heat from a electric water heater just doesn't make sense to me. There should be a outside stat in the compressor unit that will convert to straight electric when temps get to low for the compressor to work efficiently and at that point the air should feel warmer and the electric meter will be spinning like crazy.
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patvetzal

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Re: Who knows what about Heat Pumps!?
« Reply #6 on: February 27, 2017, 03:39:35 PM »

We have a lake loop geothermal system. Last years I added an outdoor wood furnace. In ten years the backup heat never turned on (we have it locked out) and the last month the geo ran, it cost the same as paying $80/bush cord for dry maple. Lucky we don't pay for wood...
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schoppy

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Re: Who knows what about Heat Pumps!?
« Reply #7 on: March 03, 2017, 11:59:05 PM »

I have two ground source geothermal systems in my home. One water to water system for the in floor heat part of my home and one water to air for the forced air heating portion of my home and air conditioning for the entire home. Geothermal or heat pump systems typically all have refrigerant lines running to the air handler. There are systems out there that act like chillers and run chilled water for air conditioning but not many. There are also geothermal water heaters like ones my coop sells but I really can't tell what you have from the picture. The best bet would be to find a dealer for the make of system you have and have them do a walk through of your system. They should be able to tell you required maintenance as well as sequence of operation so you can be properly informed, money well spent in my opinion.

Regarding the operation of heat pumps, whether they are air or geothermal, are all similar. The refrigerant system uses either air or water as the medium to transfer heat from. In the heating mode the A coil above the furnace is the condenser giving off heat to the home from the air or water passing through or around the evaporator . In the case of an air heat pump their efficiency is best at outdoor temps around 45 to 60 degrees. The efficiency drops as the outdoor temp drops because there is less heat in the air. Geothermal systems are more efficient because they use water (a better medium for transferring heat than air) from the ground about 8 feet below ground level (ground source closed loop) or lakes/streams (water source) which typically maintains a fairly constant temperature of 55 degrees. In the cooling mode, a reversing valve changes the directional flow of the refrigerant and the A coil is now the evaporator just like a normal central A/C system. Then the air or water remove heat from the condenser cooling the home.   
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